The game is about involving the Blizzard Heroes and playing with friends.

Warcraft 3 was when things really took off.

The WC3 editor and the new game mechanics were important in allowing players to create MOBA style games.

WC3 added lots of new art for players to use in the editor.

Blizzard originally made the feature rich tools for themselves, but players took them and made some awesome content.

The SC2 editor was a powerful tool, so the team took it and made a game with it. The feedback was positive and the team wanted to work on it some more.

The art made for Blizzcon was the basis for involving all of the different Blizzard universes.

Hearthstone is important to Heroes of the Storm because it captures the fun and essence of Warcraft in a card game. The Heroes team wants to do the same kind of thing with all the Blizzard universes in Heroes of the Storm.

Making Diablo, Starcraft, and Warcraft all fit together in the same game isn't too hard, Orcs have been standing next to demons for a long time.

Playing Arthas has to feel like you are in control of one of the most deadly heroes ever to exist. He can steal the souls of enemies he kills and have them follow him into battle.

You can choose your own Heroic Ability currently in Heroes.

Heroes lets the team go back and use characters from the past before they were changed, like Arthas.

Elite Tauren Chieftain also appears in Heroes. He can move quickly and heal himself. Stage Dive is his heroic ability, allowing him to jump on the enemy from out of nowhere. He also can force everyone to stop and dance briefly.

Abathur from SC2 also appears in Heroes. He can jump inside any friendly hero from far away, allowing him to shoot abilities from inside them. On his own he isn't dangerous at all.

Heroes have different skins that are as simple as color variations or entirely different models. (Diablo + Murloc, Starcraft Uther, Judgement Armor Uther)

Games last twenty minutes.

There are team levels rather than hero levels. This makes support heroes and specialist heroes viable options.

Battlegrounds provide opportunities to play with friends and a variety of gameplay settings. Maps can be taken out of the matchmade game rotation and new maps added.

Blackheart's Bay requires you to find chests, attack them, collect the coins. You take the coins to Blackheart. Other players are treasure goblins, carrying coins and trying to avoid you.

The Haunted Mines requires you to kill the undead underground and collect their skulls in a PvP/PvE dungeon. There is a boss that has a lot of skulls, so there is a big teamfight around him usually. Once all the skulls are collected, a golem appears for each team. The size of the golem depends on how many skulls you collect. They move across the map and smash things, so you have to choose to defend your or go and attack the oncoming golem. Wherever the golem dies is where it respawns next time it comes to life. Your team wants to keep it far away from your base.

Q&A

Two or three teamfights doesn't usually make the game unless the teams are very unbalanced.

Communication is important with how much of an impact strategy will have on the game outcome. Playing with friends is going to provide a better experience than playing with PuGs. The devs are going to try and make communication as easy as possible though.

The mounts in the game allow a team to group up quickly and move quickly out of combat.

Individual skill is nice, but you won't be able to make your hero much more powerful than anyone else. This game is about playing with a team, not an individual.

More customization beyond talents or powers will be looked at in the future.

Heroes will have competitive play, but becoming an e-sport will be up to the community.

The mounts are too far. They always have to have this EXTRA crap that makes a "Blizzard DOTA" a world of warcraft touch. It's not MOBA World of Wacraft, it's HEROES of the STORM. WHy the fuck do they have to have mounts? The reasoning: To get grouped up faster? Kill yourself. Whoever that game Designer is.

I kind of feel the same way(not bad, but not taking itself seriously either)... 20 minutes time limit and no items ...

Yeah, I feel kinda weird about it. I've been very excited to hear more about Heart of the Storm but the whole thing about not relying even a bit on your personal skill leaves me kinda eh about the whole thing... I dunno, I'll def try it but I'm just having some nagging thoughts.

The mounts are too far. They always have to have this EXTRA crap that makes a "Blizzard DOTA" a world of warcraft touch. It's not MOBA World of Wacraft, it's HEROES of the STORM. WHy the fuck do they have to have mounts? The reasoning: To get grouped up faster? Kill yourself. Whoever that game Designer is.

I think the mounts are only up for the start of the game? like first 1 minute or so to allow you to get to your spot faster. I don't think you can simply just mount up whenever you want.

And there is no time limit. What they meant is that this game usually lasts on average 20 minutes.

Let me clarify, this game will not have a competitive scene, nor will it seriously compete with LoL or Dota in the moba market.

don't be so sure. Since the game will be focusing more on team plays, it can be a serious threat to current trend of MOBA and maybe a fix to the toxic in-game community. A few feeds won't affect much to overall team's performance, open more to strategy game play rather than last hitting creeps, mindless farming for the first 20mins of the game.

Yes they are fun. Being behind for the entire game and finally winning a team fight then pushing for the win is awesome

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I don't understand the removal of last hitting. Being ahead in cs grants lane control and the obvious advantage of better items. Is there even items? This all sounds a bit meh tbh. I don't like the emphasis on team coordination either. Sure it's great with 4 friends on Skype but in a random groups it's horrible.

Looks like great fun. I for one don't have time to spend hours on end playing one round, so i've never really gotten into them. This looks far more fun and approachable. Really looking forward to it. And whiners - they're not aiming at DOTA 2 fans, that ship has already sailed. They're aiming at people like me.